Contemporary Issues in I.T

Contemporary Issues in IT

This is a post about the use of IT in the news and around the world.

Hospitals using IT to save lives

Better use of information technology in England's hospitals could help prevent 16,000 deaths a year.

University Hospitals Birmingham has recommended its system to the team investigating above-average death rates from 2005 to 2008 at Stafford Hospital.

The trust says it saw a 17% fall in deaths among emergency patients over 12 months, which would equate to 16,000 deaths prevented across England.

Advantages of New IT System

• More people will survive in hospitals.
• Patients will receive all of their drugs because of reminders from the system.  This is good because one in five drugs is not given to the patient at the moment, but this could stop it.
• This system can also keep the doctors and nurses informed about the patient’s condition and previous medical history.

Disadvantages of New IT System

• This new system will be very expensive and the NHS is funded by tax payers money so the tax payers will be paying for it.

In my opinion, the new system is a worth while project that can save thousands of lives and anything that can save lives is worth the money.

The London Roits

A number of politicians and members of the police force have suggested that Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger were partly to blame for the organisation of the London riots.  This is because the information of the riot meet ups were shared over the internet on social networking sites, such as twitter and facebook, and the free messaging service offered by Blackberry called BBM.  These services were being used to start the riots by organising where to strike in the city.  Blackberry has offered their services in order to help the police find the rioters.

Websites and services like BBM and Twitter are extremely useful for people to contact friends and family, but unfortunately some people abused the easy communication to set up where they would next wreak havoc. One of  its disadvantages are that it is harder to track people down if they are in trouble with the police for doing something illegal, such as organising riots on the internet.

In my opinion, the social networking sites and BBM were partly to blame for the London riots.  This is because they offer a service that most of the people in the riots used and it was just convenient for them to use them for their illegal activities.

NASA Launches the NPP Satellite

The NPP satellite, NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, soared into space aboard a Delta II rocket after lift off on 28^th October.

NPP carries five science instruments to help meteorologists improve short-term weather forecasts and to help climatologists observe long-term patterns. The mission will extend more than 30 key long-term data sets that NASA has been tracking, including measurements of the ozone layer, land cover, ice cover, clouds, the ocean surface, and vegetation.  It orbits 512 miles above the Earth.

Advantages of the NPP Satellite

• We will be able to predict what the weather will be like more accurately and we can observe the condition of other things such as the ozone layer better.
• It will improve our understanding of what earth is doing.
• It will be a step forward in better technology.

Disadvantages of the NPP Satellite

• The Satellite traffic will increase as it joins the many that are already in orbit.
• The satellite cost billions to make.

In my opinion, the satellite is a great project for improving weather forecasting by making it more reliable and accurate.  It can also collect more data and information for the experts that are working on this, so they can improve things even more in the future.

On-line Banking

Testing with online banking started during the early 1980s, but it wasn't until 6^th October 1995, that Presidential Savings Bank first offered customers an online alternative to the traditional banking experience. 

With online banking, customers can view their current and available balances, view transactions, pay your bills, transfer money to external accounts, transfer money between your banking and savings accounts, transfer money overseas, request a new overdraft and request an increased limit for an existing overdraft.

You can also use on-line banking for your credit cards. Customers can,

View their balance and any recent transactions and transfer balances from other credit or store cards.

Some banks have higher security than others.  Banks that have started to use online banking more have created card reading devices that give the customer a special login code for them to enter into their website in order for the customer to access their account online.  This code is different every time so it is less likely that they can be a victim of fraud and hacking.

There are also online only banks such as:

• First Direct
• Egg
• ING Direct
• RaboDirect

These are banks that are only online and do not have any branches for customers to go to.  Everything that the customer needs is on the banks website and they have phone lines for people to call if they have any problems or need help with complicated banking.

Online Banking has advantages and disadvantages for different groups of people.

These groups are the customer, the bank and the employees.

Advantages for customers

• Convenient because it is quick and easy when you don’t want to go out.
• No need to travel because you can look at your bank from the comfort of your own home.
• Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• No queuing because you are online instead of in a building waiting to be served.
• The customer can find details quickly because the easy to use websites keep the information you need.

Disadvantages for customers

• There can be some security risks such as hackers.
• Possibility of errors on the systems or by people that could enter the wrong information.
• The Digital Divide.  Some people do not trust and do not like using technology for something so personal and important.

Advantages for the bank

• They have fewer employees to pay which means they have less money going out.
• Wider customer base because some people might join a bank for their appealing online alternatives.
• The bank doesn't need as many buildings because people are doing more of their banking on-line.

Disadvantages for the bank

• If something goes wrong with security, then the bank is the one in trouble because their reputation is at risk.
• It costs the bank lots of money in order to keep their customers safe.
• Some customers might not trust the online banking because of hackers and the digital divide which means fewer customers for the bank.

Advantages for employees

• New job opportunities for website developers and designers.

Disadvantages for employees

• Some people might lose jobs if the banking is being used more than the branches.

In my opinion, online banking is a great and very useful idea.  It lets people do their banking anywhere and at any time.  There are some risks involved in online banking, such as hackers and system errors, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and people would rather take the small risk and use the useful online alternative to going into a branch.

E-Government

E-government is a digital interaction between government and citizen.

Examples of this are:

• Taxes- Inland Revenue and car tax
• Voting
• Petitions
• Pensions- Apply for a pension forecast
• Contact your MP
• NHS
• Party Policies
• Electronic Application Services
• UCAS
• Driving applications
• Online Statistics
• Police
• Environment
• Schools

The main e-government website in the UK is Directgov.  It covers everything above and more, including help for young people, crime, motoring, children, employment and many more.

NHS Choices

The NHS stands for National Health Service and it is run by the government.  The NHS have a website called NHS Choices and it has lots of information about where to find NHS services, how to live healthily and information on conditions and symptoms and what you can do about them.

Advantages of NHS Choices

It is run by the government, so it will always be there for when people have problems with their health.

It is useful for someone that cant go to a doctor or just needs information about something minor because they can just go onto this website and find out everything they need to know and can get further information whether they need to go to the doctor or not.

It has useful information for people that are not ill.  If someone just wants to know how to keep healthy then they can have a look on the website and get loads of information.

There are updates on the news of medical science for people to read and stay up to date with new treatments and new breakthroughs on medicines and cures.

Disadvantages of NHS Choices

People could use this as a substitute doctor and could wrongly diagnose themselves when they could be seriously ill.

The website can’t be as accurate as going to a hospital or seeing your GP.

In my opinion, this kind of E-government is quite good because I can see it being very useful for the people that need it.  It is useful for people that might be curious about something because it is quick and convenient to use with lots of information.

Motoring

Advantages of Motoring

You can apply for a driving licence online.  This would be quick and would have lots of information about what you have to do.

It has lots of information about driving and the Highway Code.

Information about vehicle crime and lots of other legal car information.

Disadvantages of Motoring

If you lose your driving licence or it gets stolen you will have to apply again online and wait for another one.

In my opinion, a motoring section online is a helpful part of e-government.  This is because young people will not know much about what to do to get driving and what to do when they are on the road.

Voting

Advantages of Voting

There is lots of information that tells you how to vote.  This is good for people that are new to voting.

You can register to vote online.  This is good because it is convenient and easy.

It shows local government elections.  This is good because you can see what will happen in your local area if you decide to vote for a specific party.

Disadvantages of Voting

You can not vote in local government elections if you are a British citizen living abroad and registered as an overseas voter.

You can’t actually vote online, just register to vote and go to a polling station or by a letter in the post.

In my opinion, registering online is a good idea and giving lots of information to people about the elections is useful but it would be better if you would be able to vote online instead of going to the polling station or posting it. 

Online Education

The internet helps towards education in several different ways such as information websites, educational videos, online activities, research and forums.

Examples of websites like this are:

BBC Bitesize- An online revision website for all subjects up to GCSE level.

MyMaths- An online maths website that can be used for learning, revision and homework.

YouTube- An online video website that lets you search anything you want.  These videos 

can show examples of what you are learning or videos that explain things to you.

Wikipedia- An online information website that has information about nearly everything for you to research.

The Student Room- An online forum for students to ask questions about problems they are having with work or exams.

Sam Learning- An online education website for people to revise and do quizzes on certain subjects in order to earn points on their profile and beat their friends.

FastTomato- An online careers education and guidance system, designed for people aged 12 upwards who are considering their future career and study options.

Net Frog- An online tutorial website that shows you how to dissect a frog correctly.  It has videos and activities for you to do, to help you understand.

Advantages of Research Websites:

• Fast to search what you are looking for
• Helps people with their homework
• They have information about lots of topics

Disadvantages of Research Websites:

• It is not guaranteed that they will have the exact information you want
• Some of the information could be out of date
• Some information could be incorrect

In my opinion, research websites are very useful.  If you need to know something, I’m sure there will be a website that can tell you.  However, if you are using a website such as wikipedia, then you should check the information on another website to make sure it is correct.  This is because wikipedia can be edited by anyone that thinks they know about something and sometimes write the wrong information.

Advantages of Educational Videos:

• Easy to learn from because people don’t get bored from reading lots of text
• More interesting
• Wide range of things to learn about
• Kids prefer to learn from videos rather than teachers talking or going through a book.

Disadvantages of Educational Videos:

• Some videos displayed by your search can be irrelevant to what you are looking for
• Videos might not go into much detail
• Slow internet connections can affect your experience with videos because they can load really slowly and you have to wait.

In my opinion, educational videos are good.  They break up the old ways of learning and revising.  During my exams I used to go onto youtube to find some videos that would help me understand and remember topics better, and it worked.  This is a good form of education, but unfortunately everyone learns in different ways so it might only be useful for some people.

Advantages of Revision Websites:

• Made especially to help you remember information
• Easy to use
• Nearly every subject to revise
• Activities such as quizzes to test what you have learned

Disadvantages of Revision Websites:

• It doesn’t cover a whole topic, just the important bits
• All the schools in the country are doing something slightly different, so the revision website might not include what you are learning 

In my opinion, revision websites help with the main points of a topic but not the less important points which make it less useful than other education sources.  However it has good activities that help you revise.

Advantages of Activity Websites:

• They help people to practice questions such as maths sums
• It is more fun to do an activity and it might help you learn better
• It is easy to use

Disadvantages of Activity Websites:

• Some activities might only cover a topic briefly
• MyMaths needs a login to be able to use it
• Some people might find them repetitive

In my opinion, I think activity websites are also useful because it could be a preferred way for someone to learn and it is a good way to learn maths because it guides you through while you work out sums and it is easier than using pens, paper and text books.